A leader of one of Argentina’s major political parties charged today that, in the face of more than 50 anti-Semitic incidents in recent months, the only response by Police Chief Horacio Green was “imprudent statements” and charges that some of the incidents were fictitious.
The charges were made by Silvano Santander, a leading member of the Union Civica Radical del Pueblo party, who also endorsed Interior Minister’s Carlos Adrogue’s announcement that extremist organizations would be outlawed. But he expressed doubts that Dr. Adrogue could carry out that pledge.
In reply to a question as to whether he meant to imply that there was Nazi and fascist infiltration in the Government apparatus and security services, he said: “For one thing, the police chief makes it known that he does not agree with the thinking of Dr. Adrogue.”
He then accused the police chief of declaring that two specific incidents were “false, ” The incidents were the abduction and torture of 19-year-old Graciale Sirota, a Jewish Buenos Aires university medical student, who had a swastika carved on her body with a razor wielded by one of the three thugs who attacked her, and a similar attack on Heraldo d’Alessandro, 18, who had swastikas cut into his face by unknown thugs. The youth’s mother is Jewish.
Senor Santander said flatly that there was government partiality toward extreme right groups, and that he believed that there were some military figures and many Catholic priests with influence “who do not conceal their support for these activities.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
